Experimental Investigation on Wave Reflection Characteristics of Slotted Vertical Barriers with an Impermeable Back Wall in Random Wave Fields
Publication: Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering
Volume 143, Issue 4
Abstract
Experimental investigations were carried out to assess the wave reflection characteristics of slotted vertical barriers with an impermeable rear wall. This study was carried out to investigate whether these barriers can be used instead of sloped rubble mounds, which occupy a significant area in ports/harbors/marinas, for wave energy dissipation. Thirty-seven different wave barriers (1 vertical wall, 6 different sloped breakwaters, and 30 slotted vertical barriers with porosity in the range of 10–50% and 1–6 slotted barriers) were tested in random wave fields of the JONSWAP spectra in different combinations of significant wave heights and peak periods. For relatively long waves (water depth/wavelength ratio of d/Lp > 0.2), the performances of many combinations of slotted vertical barriers were much better than those of the conventional sloped rubble-mound breakwaters. The results of this study show that by increasing the number of porous walls from one to six, it is possible to reduce the value of the reflection coefficient from 0.9 to 0.3, especially for a d/Lp greater than 0.2. Also, the results show that for a d/Lp less than 0.2, increasing the number of porous walls did not significantly reduce wave reflection. Overall, these results suggest that slotted barriers can be a good alternative to sloped rubble breakwaters for ports, harbors, and marinas, especially in places where good-quality stones are expensive. In addition, this solution helps increase the effective use of space inside the harbor better than do sloped rubble-mound structures.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the upper management of the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research for financing this study. The commitment of the staff and technicians for facilitating the model fabrication and the experimental works at the Hydraulics and Coastal Engineering Laboratory, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, is appreciated.
References
Bennett, G. S., McIver, P., and Smallman, J. V. (1992). “A mathematical model of a slotted wave screen breakwater.” Coastal Eng., 18(3–4), 231–249.
Chen, X. F., Li, Y. C., and Sun, D. P. (2002). “Regular waves acting on double-layered perforated caissons.” Proc., 12th ISOPE, Vol. 3, 736–743.
Cho, I. H., and Kim, M. H. (2008). “Wave absorbing system using inclined perforated plates.” J. Fluid Mech., 608(Aug), 1–20.
Chwang, A. T. (1983). “A porous-wave maker theory.” J. Fluid Mech., 132(Jul), 395–406.
Chwang, A. T., and Dong, Z. (1984). “Wave-trapping due to a porous plate.” Proc., 15th Symp. on Naval Hydrodynamics, Session 6, 32–42.
Evans, D. V. (1990). “The use of porous screens as wave dampers in narrow wave tanks.” J. Eng. Math., 24(3), 203–212.
Franco, L. (1994). “Vertical breakwaters: The Italian experience.” Coastal Eng., 22(1–2), 31–55.
Franco, L., de Gerloni, M., Passoni, G., and Zacconi, D. (1998). “Wave forces on solid and perforated caisson breakwaters: Comparison of field and laboratory measurements.” Proc., 26th Coastal Engineering Conf., ASCE, Reston, VA, 1945–1958.
Fugazza, M., and Natale, L. (1992). “Hydraulic design of perforated breakwaters.” J. Waterway, Port, Coastal, Ocean Eng., 1–14.
Huang, Z. (2006). “A method to study interactions between narrow-banded random waves and multi-chamber perforated structures.” Acta Mech. Sin., 22(4), 285–292.
Huang, Z., Li, Y., and Liu, Y. (2011). “Hydraulic performance and wave loading of perforated/slotted coastal structures: A review.” Ocean Eng., 38(10), 1031–1053.
Jarlan, G. E. (1961). “A perforated vertical wall breakwater.” Dock Harb. Auth., XII(486), 394–398.
Kakuno, S., Oda, K., and Liu, P. L. F. (1992). “Scattering of water waves by vertical cylinders with a back wall.” Proc., 23th Coastal Engineering Conf., ASCE, New York, 1258–1271.
Kondo, H. (1979). “Analysis of breakwaters having two porous walls.” Proc., Coastal Structures ’79. ASCE, New York, 962–977.
Li, Y., Liu, Y., and Teng, B. (2006). “Porous effect parameter of thin permeable plates.” Coastal Eng., 48(4), 309–336.
Li, Y., Dong, G., Liu, H., and Sun, D. (2003). “The reflection of oblique incident waves by breakwaters with double-layered perforated wall.” Coastal Eng., 50(1–2) 47–60.
Li, Y. C. (2007). “Interaction between waves and perforated-caisson breakwaters.” Proc., 4th Int. Conf. on Asian and Pacific Coasts, 1–16.
Losada, J., Losada, M. A., and Baquerizo, A. (1993). “An analytical method to evaluate the efficiency of porous screens as wave dampers.” Appl. Ocean Res., 15(4), 207–215.
Mansard, E. P. D., and Funke, E. R. (1987). “On the reflection analysis of irregular waves.” Tech. Rep. TR-HY-017, NRCC No. 27522, National Research Council of Canada, Ontario, Canada.
MIKE Zero [Computer software]. Danish Hydraulic Institute, Hørsholm, Denmark.
Ou-Yang, H. T., Huang, L. H., and Hwang, W. S. (1997). “The interference of a semi-submerged obstacle on the porous breakwater.” Appl. Ocean Res., 19, 263–273.
Park, W. S., Chun, I. S., and Lee, D. S. (1993). “Hydraulic experiments for the reflection characteristics of perforated breakwaters.” J. Korean Soc. Coast. Ocean Eng., 5(3), 198–203 (in Korean).
Sahoo, T., Lee, M. M, and Chwang, A. T. (2000). “Trapping and generation of waves by vertical porous structures.” J. Eng. Mech., 1074–1082.
Sawaragi, T., and Iwata, K. (1978). “Wave attenuation of a vertical breakwater with two air chambers.” Coast. Eng. Jpn., 21, 63–74.
Suh, K.-D., Shin, S., and Cox, D. T. (2006). “Hydrodynamic characteristics of pile-supported breakwaters.” J. Waterway, Port, Coastal, Ocean Eng., 83–96.
Twu, S. W., and Lin, D. T. (1991). “On a highly effective wave absorber.” Coast. Eng. 15(4), 389–405.
Williams, A. N., Mansour, A.-E. M., and Lee, H. S. (2000). “Simplified analytical solutions for wave interaction with absorbing-type caisson breakwaters.” Ocean Eng., 27(11), 1231–1248.
Yip, T. L., and Chwang, A. T. (2000). “Perforated wall breakwater with internal horizontal plate.” J. Eng. Mech., 533–538.
Yu, X., and Chwang, A. T. (1994). “Water waves above submerged porous plate.” J. Eng. Mech., 1270–1282.
Zelt, J. A., and Skjelbreia, J. E. (1992). “Estimating incident and reflected wave fields using arbitrary number of wave gauges.” Proc., 23rd Int. Conf. on Coastal Engineering, ASCE, Reston, VA, 777–789.
Zhu, D., and Zhu, S. (2010). “Impedance analysis of hydrodynamic behaviors for a perforated-wall caisson breakwater under regular wave orthogonal attack.” Coast. Eng., 57(8), 722–731.
Zhu, S., and Chwang, A. T. (2001). “Investigation on the reflection behaviour of a slotted seawall.” Coast. Eng., 43(2), 93–104.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering
Volume 143 • Issue 4 • July 2017
Copyright
© 2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 5, 2016
Accepted: Dec 27, 2016
Published online: Mar 9, 2017
Published in print: Jul 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Aug 9, 2017
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.